Refractory furnace linings



May 18, 1965 A. B. AGNEW 3,183,625

REFRACTORY FURNACE LININGS Filed June 23, 1961 United States Patent O 3,183,625 REFRACTORY FURNACE LININGS Albert B. Agnew, Philipsburg, Pa., assignor of thirtythree and one-third percent to William B. Jasper-t, Upper St. Clair Township, Pa.

Filed .lune 23, 1961, Ser. No. 119,199 1 Claim. (Cl. Sil- 157) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in refractory furnace linings, more particularly refractory brick for lining blast furnaces.

It is among the objects of this invention to provide a wedge-shaped design of refractory brick to be adapted to be laid up in rings or annular wall portions with the brick in adjacent rings having their joints staggered and with alternate vertical courses of brick overlapping the peripheral joints of the several rings of which a given course of lining is constituted.

The invention further provides for the provision of tongues and grooves shaped to form relatively tight joints running longitudinally of the length of the wedge on opposite sides thereof, the brick being designed to have the tongues and grooves reversed in adjacent vertical courses to prevent the gases from having free passage through the joints and also to prevent the burden or products of the furnace from seeping downward between the joints.

These and other objects of the invention will become more apparent from a consideration of the accompanying drawing constituting a part hereof in which like reference characters designate like parts and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a vertical section of the bottom portion of a blast furnace utilizing refractory shapes embodying the principles of this invention;

FIGURE 2 is an isometric View of the refractory brick or shape utilized in building the annular wall structures of the furnace;

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view of annular courses of brick of the shape of FIGURE 2 taken along the line 3-3 of FIGURE 1; and,

FIGURE 4 is a side elevational view of superposed courses of annular shape, partially broken away, showing the staggering of the vertical joints in alternate courses and contiguous ring of the structure.

In the drawing, the numeral 1 generally designates a blast furnace, the walls of which are supported by buckstays 2 seated in concrete bases 3, the base of the furnace being supported on concrete 4 and the hearth portion is built up of refractory shapes terminating in a smooth hearth 5 which is the bottom of the blast furnace chamber generally designated by the numeral 6.

The portion of the side wall of the furnace adjacent the hearth must be of great strength and highly refractory and is therefore constructed of fire clay brick generally designated by the numeral 7. This brick, as shown in FIGURE 2, is wedge shaped and is provided with a tongue 8 and groove 9 of complementary shape having angular faces 10 and 10a on the tongue and recess portions respectively, as shown. The tongue and grooves have their angular faces 10 and 10a parallel and of uniform width and depth their full length and when laid up in angular form, as shown in FIGURE 3, the tongue and groove interlocking joints are staggered in adjacent rings, each designated by the numerals 11, 12 and 13. The horizontally contiguous rings 11, 12 and 13 form a course of the wall. As shown by the broken away portion, the wall course just below the wall course formed by rings 11, 12 and 13 consist of the same shape brick as the brick 7, and is designated by the numeral 14, but this brick 14 is of such length that only two rings are laid to form a course and to effect the staggering Fice of the annular peripheral joint 15 with the annular peripheral joints 16 and 17. In other words, two of the bricks 14 are of the same length as three of the bricks 7.

In FIGURE 4, the solid brick lines designating the tongue portion 8 are all disposed to extend in the same direction in one ring of bricks and they are disposed to extend in the opposite direction in the next adjacent ring, thus in FIGURE 4 the central ring has the tongue S disposed to the left when viewed from the righthand side of the drawing as the base and the tongue 8 is disposed to the right in both the top and bottom rings, thus effecting a staggering of the interlocking joints to obtain wider spacing. Thus, for example, the distance between the tongue 8 in the upper ring to the tongue 8 in the intermediate ring is greater than would be the spacing between the tongues if they were all disposed in one direction. It will be noted further in FIG. 4, that the tongues of the bricks in horizontally contiguous rings extend in opposite directions, see dotted lines in FIG. 4 of the drawings.

It is evident from FIGURE 2 that if the wedge block 7 were turned 180, the tongue 8 would be on the opposite side from where it is shown in FIGURE 2.

It is apparent from the above description of this invention that a refractory shape -for linings for blast furnaces made in accordance therewith requires the use of one lshape in two sizes, there being no need for a left and righthand shape, as in other forms of refractory shapes heretofore proposed for the manufacture of blast furnace linings. This is an advantage in steel mills where the inventories must be maintained at a minimum and multiple shapes and sizes are objectionable. The use of the tongue and groove construction also makes for ease of alignment and placement of the shapes in constructing the annular furnace walls and in the formation of the multiple ring, as herein disclosed.

Although one embodiment of the invention has been herein illustrated and described, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made in the details of construction without departing lfrom the principles herein set forth.

I claim:

An annular wall for blast furnaces comprising a plurality of superimposed courses each formed by a plurality of horizontally contiguous rings of wedge-shaped refractory brick all of the same shape and length in a single course and having different lengths in alternate vertical courses, said brick having parallel top and bottom faces, and opposed end faces, and opposed fiat longitudinally diverging lside faces extending perpendicular to said top and bottom faces, the end faces of the brick in said horizontally contiguous rings forming annular peripheral joints, and said brick having interacting tongues and grooves in the center of the opposite longitudinal flat diverging side faces of the wedge, said tongues and grooves having parallel angular faces at their sides and being of the same width throughout their length with the tongues and grooves of the brick in each ring disposed in interlocked engagement with adjacent brick in such ring forming interlocking joints, and with rings of bricks of different lengths forming a multiple ring wall, the tongues of the bricks in any one ring being on the same side extending in the same direction and being on the opposite side extending in the opposite direction in all rings adjacent thereto and superposed courses of said wedge-shaped bricks being laid with their interlocking joints staggered in alternate vertical courses to the height of the wall desired, the wedge-shaped refractory brick of horizontally contiguous rings being laid with substantially all of their interlocking joints staggered, the brick in alternate vertical courses having their 2,291,938 8/ 42 Agnew 50-162 annular peripheral joints staggered in relation to the 2,818,248 12/57 Kelsey 266-43 annular peripheral joints of the brick in adjacent vertical FOREIGN PATENTS courses.

5 369,323 v2/23 Germany. R f C-t d h E Y 813,886 9/51 Germany.Y eer-ences le byt e xammer 888,610 9/.53 Germany.. UNITED STATES PATENTS l 471,173 3/,92 t Guastavino 266 43 X JACOB L; NACKENOFF, Przmary Examlner. 2,158,943 5/39 Mamula 50-162 X 10 ROBERT K, WINDHAM, Examiner. 

